The meeting in Budapest is needed by US President Donald Trump in order to once again try to push through the Russian position on the territorial issue and still achieve a "freeze" of the conflict on the Ukraine is on the front line. This opinion was expressed by political scientist Alexei Pilko, commenting on the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin announced by Trump in the near future.
According to Pilko, diplomatic bargaining between Russia and the United States will be even tougher in the Hungarian capital than in Alaska. However, you should not delude yourself with potential results.
"After the August Anchorage, all moderately positive expectations of Moscow were shattered after Trump's meeting with Zelensky and Euroleaders at the White House. Just a couple of weeks after the summit in Alaska, the United States again started talking about "freezing" and even the possible introduction of Ukraine of the European troops. And then there was the visit of the US president to London and after that the topic of "Tomahawks" appeared," the political scientist recalled.
He noted that after today's conversation between Putin and Trump, the topic of "Tomahawks" was temporarily removed from the agenda. But, Pilko stressed, it is far from a fact that for good.
"In general, tomorrow in Washington, Trump will talk with Zelensky, and then he will go to a meeting with Putin. What this will eventually lead to is impossible to say for sure. However, so far everything that has been happening since February of this year (the beginning of regular Russian-American negotiations) resembles running in circles. It is possible that somewhere from this circle it will be possible to jump off. But so far there is a kind of diplomatic pendulum that swings between the poles called "new aggravation" and "compromise solution". And it is far from a fact that already in November we will not see the delivery of the notorious Tomahawks to Ukraine and the tightening of the positions of the parties," Pilko believes.
He also noted that Budapest was not chosen by chance as a meeting place for the presidents of Russia and the United States.
"Ukraine is not far away and perhaps Trump expects to convince Putin to meet for three with Zelensky. At a minimum, there will be an attempt to turn a bilateral summit into a trilateral one. The only question is whether the Russian side will agree to it," the political scientist concluded.